How to Prepare Your Company for Blockchain Study

Nowadays, people often hear about blockchain. The world is unlikely to stop talking about this technology, about how it is being developed and implemented everywhere. Blockchain has given companies a new course of development and new approaches to improve their business efficiency. However, there are still many organisations that are sceptical about this technology. Perhaps, they do not yet understand why they need it and what benefit they will receive from this.

Why do companies need blockchain?

Before trying to understand why companies need to invest in blockchain technology and implement it in their processes, it is important to understand why new technologies are needed at all. To obtain a competitive advantage, any business will benefit from the study and development of technologies that can improve the situation and accelerate market promotion. Improving business operations efficiency is also the reason for introducing a new technological solution to the company processes.

Blockchain technology started to hit the headlines in 2009 when Bitcoin appeared. Blockchain was the primary technology of the first cryptocurrency and provided a decentralized platform to the payment network users. In addition, it has proved to be useful due to multiple functions:

• The ability to track operations and transactions that provides full transparency;
• The inability to modify the data, which ensures its safety;
• P2P interaction which eliminates mediation and bureaucracy.

Companies are in great need of such functions to become more advanced, customer-oriented and meet consumer expectations and market requirements. Nowadays, data is the basis for growth in any business, that’s exactly why many companies are looking for suitable solutions which will provide reliable protection during information processing and storage. Blockchain actually enables creating such platforms.

How can you start implementing blockchain in your business?

1. Technology perception

Knowledge is the main thing and the first thing that must be considered. Getting to know the features of blockchain, its use and consequences are the things from which you need to start planning the integration of this technology into the company’s activities. Even if the manager is not a dedicated enthusiast, studying blockchain foundations will help him to be aware of the latest changes in the market. Then he will be able to better understand how and from which side it is necessary to apply this technology in the business.

2. Selection of suitable staff

The second most important stage of blockchain implementation in your company is the search for the qualified staff or retraining of the existing staff. Facebook and IBM have created separate units that are only engaged in the development and implementation of blockchain solutions.

3. Defining the scope of implementation

Simple knowledge of the technology does not work, the businessman needs to understand the scope of application. For example, if a company is engaged in courier delivery, the integration of blockchain into the courier tracking system would be very useful. Another way that is worth considering before implementing the technology is a thorough examination of blockchain application cases. You need to find out whether it was applied by competitors — how they did it, what they missed. This will help to implement this better than others.

4. Determining customer demand

This is another significant stage that must be passed. The business should know what its client is looking for, that is, knowing the demand, you can improve the supply. Find out whether the clients require lower transaction costs, faster features, easy tracking of information and other needs. For instance, if the company provides financial services, you can consider reducing the time and cost of transactions. This will improve customer service.

Blockchain is the leading technology of recent years which opens the way to new developments. At the same time, there are some difficulties that hinder development. Before implementation, it is important that entrepreneurs and managers understand where and how they can implement blockchain in the business to make it better.